The Epic Games Store Can’t Beat Steam But It Might Become The Next Discord
Kotaku reports the Epic Games Store still feels like a glorified Fortnite launcher for many users, but Epic says non‑Epic playtime rose even as total gameplay hours fell. Epic VP Steve Allison highlighted that of 67 million average monthly active users, about 26 percent are Fortnite players and the rest play third‑party titles, and that 60 percent of the audience are dual users of Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Allison and Epic acknowledge the launcher “sucks” and are promising infrastructure overhauls for 2026 to make it faster and add platform‑level community features such as voice chat, parties, avatars, player profiles and private messaging. Those features were delayed while Epic focused on litigation with Apple and Google and expanding to mobile; a unified text chat has rolled out and a shared cross‑platform game library is planned.
Epic says it has moved on from timed exclusives but that Epic‑published games will remain on the Epic Games Store under publishing deals.